scholarly journals A clinical trial to evaluate the dayzz smartphone app on employee sleep, health, and productivity at a large US employer

PLoS ONE ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. e0260828
Author(s):  
Rebecca Robbins ◽  
Matthew D. Weaver ◽  
Stuart F. Quan ◽  
Jason P. Sullivan ◽  
Mairav Cohen-Zion ◽  
...  

Sleep deficiency is a hidden cost of our 24–7 society, with 70% of adults in the US admitting that they routinely obtain insufficient sleep. Further, it is estimated that 50–70 million adults in the US have a sleep disorder. Undiagnosed and untreated sleep disorders are associated with diminished health for the individual and increased costs for the employer. Research has shown that adverse impacts on employees and employers can be mitigated through sleep health education and sleep disorder screening and treatment programs. Smartphone applications (app) are increasingly commonplace and represent promising, scalable modalities for such programs. The dayzz app is a personalized sleep training program that incorporates assessment of sleep disorders and offers a personalized comprehensive sleep improvement solution. Using a sample of day workers affiliated with a large institution of higher education, we will conduct a single-site, parallel-group, randomized, waitlist control trial. Participants will be randomly assigned to either use the dayzz app throughout the study or receive the dayzz app at the end of the study. We will collect data on feasibility and acceptability of the dayzz app; employee sleep, including sleep behavioral changes, sleep duration, regularity, and quality; employee presenteeism, absenteeism, and performance; employee mood; adverse and safety outcomes; and healthcare utilization on a monthly basis throughout the study, as well as collect more granular daily data from the employee during pre-specified intervals. Our results will illuminate whether a personalized smartphone app is a viable approach for improving employee sleep, health, and productivity. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04224285.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Robbins ◽  
Matthew D Weaver ◽  
Stuart Quan ◽  
Jason P Sullivan ◽  
Mairav C Zion ◽  
...  

Sleep deficiency is a hidden cost of our 24-7 society, with 70% of adults in the US admitting that they routinely obtain insufficient sleep. Further, it is estimated that 50-70 million adults in the US have a sleep disorder. Undiagnosed and untreated sleep disorders are associated with diminished health for the individual and increased costs for the employer. Research has shown that adverse impacts on employees and employers can be mitigated through sleep health education and sleep disorder screening and treatment programs. Smartphone applications (app) are increasingly commonplace and represent promising, scalable modalities for such programs. The dayzz app is a personalized sleep training program that incorporates assessment of sleep disorders and offers a personalized comprehensive sleep improvement solution. Using a sample of day workers affiliated with a large institution of higher education, we will conduct a single-site, parallel-group, randomized, waitlist control trial. Participants will be randomly assigned to either use the dayzz app throughout the study or receive the dayzz app at the end of the study. We will collect data on feasibility and acceptability of the dayzz app; employee sleep, including sleep behavioral changes, sleep duration, regularity, and quality; employee presenteeism, absenteeism, and performance; employee mood; adverse and safety outcomes; and healthcare utilization on a monthly basis throughout the study, as well as collect more granular daily data from the employee during pre-specified intervals. Our results will illuminate whether a personalized smartphone app is a viable approach for improving employee sleep, health, and productivity.


1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (S3) ◽  
pp. 109s-113s ◽  
Author(s):  
T Roth

SummaryThe National Comission on Sleep Disorder Research evaluated the status of insomnia and other sleep disorders in the US. The Commission found that insomnia is prevalent affecting 20–30 million Americans, has significant morbidity especially related to attention and memory processes and cost the US an estimated $ 15 billion a year. It also estimated that all of these figures should rise significantly by the year 2000. Other sleep disorders (eg, narcolepsy and sleep apnea) although less prevalent have significant costs to patients and society associated with them. The Commission recommended that the US develop a research and education program to develop new insights into the basic mechanisms of sleep disorder. The education program needs to be directed to the general public; medical practitioners, as well as patients.


1990 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Merrill Shanks ◽  
Warren E. Miller

This article reviews the range of explanations which have been proposed for voting behaviour in the US elections won by Ronald Reagan and develops a comprehensive model for the evolution of electoral choices in both of those contests. Estimates are provided for both the direct and indirect effects of several types of variables or ‘explanatory themes’, and those estimates are used to assess the relative importance of each of those themes in explaining individual-level choices and the aggregate outcomes of both Reagan elections. These procedures suggest that preferences concerning both policy direction and evaluations of national and presidential performance played major roles in the two Reagan elections – both in the individual-level decisions and in producing the Republicans' aggregate victories.


1973 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Lynch ◽  
Annette Tobin

This paper presents the procedures developed and used in the individual treatment programs for a group of preschool, postrubella, hearing-impaired children. A case study illustrates the systematic fashion in which the clinician plans programs for each child on the basis of the child’s progress at any given time during the program. The clinician’s decisions are discussed relevant to (1) the choice of a mode(s) for the child and the teacher, (2) the basis for selecting specific target behaviors, (3) the progress of each program, and (4) the implications for future programming.


2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis M. Hsu ◽  
Judy Hayman ◽  
Judith Koch ◽  
Debbie Mandell

Summary: In the United States' normative population for the WAIS-R, differences (Ds) between persons' verbal and performance IQs (VIQs and PIQs) tend to increase with an increase in full scale IQs (FSIQs). This suggests that norm-referenced interpretations of Ds should take FSIQs into account. Two new graphs are presented to facilitate this type of interpretation. One of these graphs estimates the mean of absolute values of D (called typical D) at each FSIQ level of the US normative population. The other graph estimates the absolute value of D that is exceeded only 5% of the time (called abnormal D) at each FSIQ level of this population. A graph for the identification of conventional “statistically significant Ds” (also called “reliable Ds”) is also presented. A reliable D is defined in the context of classical true score theory as an absolute D that is unlikely (p < .05) to be exceeded by a person whose true VIQ and PIQ are equal. As conventionally defined reliable Ds do not depend on the FSIQ. The graphs of typical and abnormal Ds are based on quadratic models of the relation of sizes of Ds to FSIQs. These models are generalizations of models described in Hsu (1996) . The new graphical method of identifying Abnormal Ds is compared to the conventional Payne-Jones method of identifying these Ds. Implications of the three juxtaposed graphs for the interpretation of VIQ-PIQ differences are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Staci Defibaugh

Small talk in medical visits has received ample attention; however, small talk that occurs at the close of a medical visit has not been explored. Small talk, with its focus on relational work, is an important aspect of medical care, particularly so considering the current focus in the US on the patient-centered approach and the desire to construct positive provider– patient relationships, which have been shown to contribute to higher patient satisfaction and better health outcomes. Therefore, even small talk that is unrelated to the transactional aspect of the medical visit in fact serves an important function. In this article, I analyze small talk exchanges between nurse practitioners (NPs) and their patients which occur after the transactional work of the visit is completed. I focus on two exchanges which highlight different interactional goals. I argue that these examples illustrate a willingness on the part of all participants to extend the visit solely for the purpose of constructing positive provider–patient relationships. Furthermore, because exchanges occur after the ‘work’ of the visit has been completed, they have the potential to construct positive relationships that extend beyond the individual visit.


Author(s):  
David Willetts

Universities have a crucial role in the modern world. In England, entrance to universities is by nation-wide competition which means English universities have an exceptional influence on schools--a striking theme of the book. This important book first investigates the university as an institution and then tracks the individual on their journey to and through university. In A University Education, David Willetts presents a compelling case for the ongoing importance of the university, both as one of the great institutions of modern society and as a transformational experience for the individual. The book also makes illuminating comparisons with higher education in other countries, especially the US and Germany. Drawing on his experience as UK Minister for Universities and Science from 2010 to 2014, the author offers a powerful account of the value of higher education and the case for more expansion. He covers controversial issues in which he was involved from access for disadvantaged students to the introduction of L9,000 fees. The final section addresses some of the big questions for the future, such as the the relationship between universities and business, especially in promoting innovation.. He argues that the two great contemporary trends of globalisation and technological innovation will both change the university significantly. This is an authoritative account of English universities setting them for the first time in their new legal and regulatory framework.


Author(s):  
Pete Dale

Numerous claims have been made by a wide range of commentators that punk is somehow “a folk music” of some kind. Doubtless there are several continuities. Indeed, both tend to encourage amateur music-making, both often have affiliations with the Left, and both emerge at least partly from a collective/anti-competitive approach to music-making. However, there are also significant tensions between punk and folk as ideas/ideals and as applied in practice. Most obviously, punk makes claims to a “year zero” creativity (despite inevitably offering re-presentation of at least some existing elements in every instance), whereas folk music is supposed to carry forward a tradition (which, thankfully, is more recognized in recent decades as a subject-to-change “living tradition” than was the case in folk’s more purist periods). Politically, meanwhile, postwar folk has tended more toward a socialist and/or Marxist orientation, both in the US and UK, whereas punk has at least rhetorically claimed to be in favor of “anarchy” (in the UK, in particular). Collective creativity and competitive tendencies also differ between the two (perceived) genre areas. Although the folk scene’s “floor singer” tradition offers a dispersal of expressive opportunity comparable in some ways to the “anyone can do it” idea that gets associated with punk, the creative expectation of the individual within the group differs between the two. Punk has some similarities to folk, then, but there are tensions, too, and these are well worth examining if one is serious about testing out the common claim, in both folk and punk, that “anyone can do it.”


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Florian Schlosser ◽  
Heinrich Wiebe ◽  
Timothy G. Walmsley ◽  
Martin J. Atkins ◽  
Michael R. W. Walmsley ◽  
...  

Heat pumps are the key technology to decarbonise thermal processes by upgrading industrial surplus heat using renewable electricity. Existing insight-based integration methods refer to the idealised Grand Composite Curve requiring the full exploitation of heat recovery potential but leave the question of how to deal with technical or economic limitations unanswered. In this work, a novel Heat Pump Bridge Analysis (HPBA) is introduced for practically targeting technical and economic heat pump potential by applying Coefficient of Performance curves into the Modified Energy Transfer Diagram (METD). Removing cross-Pinch violations and operating heat exchangers at minimum approach temperatures by combined application of Bridge Analysis increases the heat recovery rate and reduce the temperature lift to be pumped at the same time. The insight-based METD allows the individual matching of heat surpluses and deficits of individual streams with the capabilities and performance of different market-available heat pump concepts. For an illustrative example, the presented modifications based on HPBA increase the economically viable share of the technical heat pump potential from 61% to 79%.


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